A Round table was organized at the press-centre of one of the biggest news agencies of Russian Federation the RIA NOVOSTI

A Round table was organized at the press-centre of one of the biggest news agencies of Russian Federation the RIA NOVOSTI o n May 13, 2009 devoted to the International Islamic Finance and Business Summit which will be held in Kazan. Participants of the R ound table were: Mr. Linar Yakupov, Head of the Organizing Committe, D irector of the Russian Centre of Islamic Economics and Finance and G eneral Director of IFC Linova, Mr. Shamil Ageev, C hairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tatarstan, and Mr. Khairul Nizam Munier, commercial counsellor of the Malaysian Embassy in the Russian Federation.

They spoke about preparation for the Summit, objectives and tasks of its O rganizers before represantatives of various public and commercial organizations, as well as journalists of authoritative m ass media agencies in Russia such as RIA N ovosti, Delovoi vtornik, Russia today, Rusiya Al-Yaum, Al-Jazeera (Russia), Gatra weekly (Indonesia), State television and radio company of Iran, Ali y ans Media TV, Islamnews, IslamRF, Muslim press, KSA2 (Kazakhstan), business portal “Republic”, “Sovremennaya mysl”, Al-Khayat, Al-Mussavar, Sovremennyi Islam and others.

The International Islamic Business and Finance Summit will be held for the first time in Kazan, Russia, on June 25-26 2009. The organizers of the International Islamic Business and Finance Summit are: IFC Linova (Tatarstan, Russia), the Islamic Research and Training Institute (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Kuala-Lumpur Business School (Malaysia), and the Russian Centre of Islamic Economics and Finance of the Russian Islamic University (Tatarstan, Russia).

Mr. Linar Yakupov said, the Summit is aimed at developing innovative economic relations through establishment of international business links and attraction of investments based on Islamic business principles.

The idea of organization of the event on an annual basis , which came as a result of the first International Investment Conference held in Kazan in June 2008 , was met with support by the Islamic Development Bank and developed further due to the collaboration between the Islamic Corporation for Development of the Private Sector (ICD), member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, and IFC Linova.

Representatives of various business structures and world-renowned scholars in Islamic economics and finance will take part in the Summit. Speakers from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Russian Federation have already confirmed their participation in the Summit.

Among the participants who confirmed their participation in the Summit are: CEO and G eneral manager of ICD, IDB Group (Saudi Arabia), General Secretary of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for I slamic Financial Institutions (Bahr a in) , President of the Kuala-Lumpur Business School, deputy of the General Secretary of the Islamic Financial Services Board (Malaysia) , CEO of oil company TATNEFT (Tatarstan, Russia).

Representatives of two a uditing c ompanies of the Big Four – PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young , as well as the law firm Pepeliaev , Goltsblat & Partners (Russia) and many others

Talks are being held concerning participation in the Summit of delegations led by ministers from Malaysia, Bahrain and Kuwait. I nvitation letters were a lso sent to embassies and consulates of the main countries of the Muslim world in Russia.

“Muslim world ha s a special approach to doing business, attracting and investing funds. And the Organizers of the Summit want Russian business to also be introduced in the global orbit of the events which are held to establish economic relations between various countries”, says one of the organizers o f the Summit.

Àt the same time, it is the R ussian business community that has to be willing to work according to new principles. It would be wrong to expect investments to come from the countries of the Islamic world without changing our own view point, says Linar Yakupov. “Investors should be able to find partners with whom they could understand each other without words and who would be familiar with principles of the Islamic economic model”. Such events as the International Conference “Islamic banking: peculiarities and prospects” held recently in Moscow, the International I slamic Business and Finance Summit , to be held in Kazan, are aimed at paving the way for interaction of interested parties, finding points to introduce Islamic finance in the Russian reality.